Household Support Fund

From April 2023 to March 2024, the Department of Work and Pensions is providing funding through the Household Support Fund. We will use this funding to support low income households with the rising cost of living, including energy, food and essential bills.

We are distributing the Household Support Fund in the following ways.

Application based support

The Local Welfare Scheme will be enhanced to enable Bracknell Forest residents in financial hardship who would not otherwise automatically qualify for support to apply. If you are eligible, there are 2 ways that you can apply:

1. Main Local Welfare Scheme – this is based on our existing assessment criteria and will include a financial assessment of your income and assets. 
2. Family cost of living voucher scheme – for low-income families not eligible for the school distributed vouchers.

Applications are currently closed.

Cost of Living Voucher Scheme

You could be eligible for a one-off £195 supermarket voucher per child.

To apply, you must be in receipt of qualifying benefits and your child must meet one of the following criteria:

• child is under 5 years old in an early years setting
• child is 16 to 18 years old in full time education
• young person is aged 16 to 25 years old in full time education with an Education, Health and Care plan
• child is home educated
• child attends an out of borough school where they are not eligible for equivalent support from their education authority

A maximum of one £195 voucher per child will be awarded during the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. 

All awards offered under the Local Welfare Scheme route, including the family cost of living vouchers, are limited to the funding available. Therefore, the council may close the applications at any point during the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, if the full Household Support Fund grant has been distributed.

Applications are currently closed.

Cost of living vouchers for households in receipt of free school meals

Children in Bracknell Forest schools registered for free school meals will get supermarket vouchers. These will be automatically distributed through schools.

The voucher details are:

• May 2023 - £15
• July 2023 - £90
• October 2023 - £15
• December 2023 - £30
• February 2024 - £15
• March 2024 - £30

Low income households

If you meet the criteria below, you will be issued with codes for supermarket vouchers in November. 

You are eligible for a voucher if you receive one or both of the following:

• income based council tax reduction
• housing benefit

You are not eligible if you are in receipt of benefits that would entitle you to the government’s £900 cost of living payment.

You must have met this qualification criteria on Monday 31 October 2023 to automatically receive a voucher.

If you are working age and in this category, you will receive a £450 voucher per household.

If you are pension age in this category, you will receive a £150 voucher per household, in addition to the existing national pension age payment.